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18. Psalm 18

¹ I love you, LORD, my strength.

    ² The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
   my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
   my shield Or sovereign and the horn Horn here symbolizes strength. of my salvation, my stronghold.

    ³ I called to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,
   and I have been saved from my enemies.
⁴ The cords of death entangled me;
   the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
⁵ The cords of the grave coiled around me;
   the snares of death confronted me.

    ⁶ In my distress I called to the LORD;
   I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
   my cry came before him, into his ears.
⁷ The earth trembled and quaked,
   and the foundations of the mountains shook;
   they trembled because he was angry.
⁸ Smoke rose from his nostrils;
   consuming fire came from his mouth,
   burning coals blazed out of it.
⁹ He parted the heavens and came down;
   dark clouds were under his feet.
¹⁰ He mounted the cherubim and flew;
   he soared on the wings of the wind.
¹¹ He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—
   the dark rain clouds of the sky.
¹² Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
   with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
¹³ The LORD thundered from heaven;
   the voice of the Most High resounded. Some Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint (see also 2 Samuel 22:14); most Hebrew manuscripts resounded, / amid hailstones and bolts of lightning
¹⁴ He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy,
   with great bolts of lightning he routed them.
¹⁵ The valleys of the sea were exposed
   and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at your rebuke, LORD,
   at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

    ¹⁶ He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
   he drew me out of deep waters.
¹⁷ He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
   from my foes, who were too strong for me.
¹⁸ They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
   but the LORD was my support.
¹⁹ He brought me out into a spacious place;
   he rescued me because he delighted in me.

    ²⁰ The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness;
   according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.
²¹ For I have kept the ways of the LORD;
   I am not guilty of turning from my God.
²² All his laws are before me;
   I have not turned away from his decrees.
²³ I have been blameless before him
   and have kept myself from sin.
²⁴ The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
   according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

    ²⁵ To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
   to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
²⁶ to the pure you show yourself pure,
   but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.
²⁷ You save the humble
   but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.
²⁸ You, LORD, keep my lamp burning;
   my God turns my darkness into light.
²⁹ With your help I can advance against a troop Or can run through a barricade;
   with my God I can scale a wall.

    ³⁰ As for God, his way is perfect:
   The LORD’s word is flawless;
   he shields all who take refuge in him.
³¹ For who is God besides the LORD?
   And who is the Rock except our God?
³² It is God who arms me with strength
   and keeps my way secure.
³³ He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;
   he causes me to stand on the heights.
³⁴ He trains my hands for battle;
   my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
³⁵ You make your saving help my shield,
   and your right hand sustains me;
   your help has made me great.
³⁶ You provide a broad path for my feet,
   so that my ankles do not give way.

    ³⁷ I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
   I did not turn back till they were destroyed.
³⁸ I crushed them so that they could not rise;
   they fell beneath my feet.
³⁹ You armed me with strength for battle;
   you humbled my adversaries before me.
⁴⁰ You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,
   and I destroyed my foes.
⁴¹ They cried for help, but there was no one to save them—
   to the LORD, but he did not answer.
⁴² I beat them as fine as windblown dust;
   I trampled them Many Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Syriac and Targum (see also 2 Samuel 22:43); Masoretic Text I poured them out like mud in the streets.
⁴³ You have delivered me from the attacks of the people;
   you have made me the head of nations.
People I did not know now serve me,
    ⁴⁴ foreigners cower before me;
   as soon as they hear of me, they obey me.
⁴⁵ They all lose heart;
   they come trembling from their strongholds.

    ⁴⁶ The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock!
   Exalted be God my Savior!
⁴⁷ He is the God who avenges me,
   who subdues nations under me,
    ⁴⁸ who saves me from my enemies.
You exalted me above my foes;
   from a violent man you rescued me.
⁴⁹ Therefore I will praise you, LORD, among the nations;
   I will sing the praises of your name.

    ⁵⁰ He gives his king great victories;
   he shows unfailing love to his anointed,
   to David and to his descendants forever.

27. For thou wilt save the afflicted people. This verse contains the correction of a mistake into which we are very ready to fall. As experience shows that the merciful are often severely afflicted, and the sincere involved in troubles of a very distressing description, to prevent any from regarding the statement as false that God deals mercifully with the merciful, David admonishes us that we must wait for the end; for although God does not immediately run to succor the good, yet, after having exercised their patience for a time, he lifts them up from the dust on which they lay prostrate, and brings effectual relief to them, even when they were in despair. Whence it follows, that we ought only to judge by the issue how God shows himself merciful towards the merciful and pure towards the pure. If he did not keep his people in suspense and waiting long for deliverance from affliction, it could not be said that it is his prerogative to save the afflicted. And it is no small consolation, in the midst of our adversities, to know that God purposely delays to communicate his assistance, which otherwise is quite prepared, that we may experience his goodness in saving us after we have been afflicted and brought low. ⁴²²⁴²² “Afin de nous faire esprouver comment il sauve les affligez.” — Fr. Nor ought we to reckon the wrongs which are inflicted upon us too bitter, since they excite God to show towards us his favor which bringeth salvation. As to the second clause of this verse, the reading is a little different in the song in the 2nd Book of Samuel, where the words are, Thine eyes are against the proud to cast them down. But this difference makes no alteration as to the meaning, except that the Holy Spirit there more plainly threatens the proud, that, as God is on the watch to overthrow them, it is impossible for them to escape destruction. The substance of both places is this: The more the ungodly indulge in gratifying their own inclinations, without any fear of danger, and the more proudly they despise the afflicted poor who are under their feet, they are so much the nearer to destruction. Whenever, therefore, they cruelly break forth against us with mockery and contempt, let us know that there is nothing which prevents God from repelling their headstrong pertinacity, but that their pride is not yet come to its height.

28. For thou shalt light my lamp. In the song in Samuel, the form of the expression is somewhat more precise; for there it is said not that God lights our lamp, but that he himself is our lamp. The meaning, however, comes to the same thing, namely, that it was by the grace of God that David, who had been plunged in darkness, returned to the light. David does not simply give thanks to God for having lighted up a lamp before him, but also for having converted his darkness into light. He, therefore, acknowledges that he had been reduced to such extremity of distress, that he was like a man whose condition was forlorn and hopeless; for he compares the confused and perplexed state of his affairs to darkness. This, indeed, by the transference of material things to things spiritual, may be applied to the spiritual illumination of the understanding; but, at the same time, we must attend to the subject of which David treats, that we may not depart from the true and proper meaning. Now, as he acknowledges that he had been restored to prosperity by the favor of God, which was to him, as it were, a life-giving light, let us, after his example, regard it as certain that we will never have the comfort of seeing our adversities brought to an end, unless God disperse the darkness which envelops us, and restore to us the light of joy. Let it not, however, be distressing to us to walk through darkness, provided God is pleased to perform to us the office of a lamp. In the following verse, David ascribes his victories to God, declaring that, under his conduct, he had broken through the wedges or phalanxes of his enemies, and had taken by storm their fortified cities. ⁴²⁵⁴²⁵ The last clause, By my God have I leaped over a wall, is rendered by the Chaldee, “I will subdue fortified towers.” Hammond renders it, “By my God I have taken a fort.” In support of this view, he observes that the word שור, shur, from שור, shor, to look, signifies both a wall, from which to observe the approach of the enemy, and a watch-tower and fort; that if we take שור, shur, as meaning a wall, the verb דלג, dalag, will be rightly rendered to leap over; but if שור, shur, means a fort, then the verb will mean to seize on it suddenly, and will therefore be best translated to take it. Thus we see that, although he was a valiant warrior, and skilled in arms, he arrogates nothing to himself. As to the tenses of the verbs, we would inform our readers once for all, that in this psalm David uses the past and the future tenses indifferently, not only because he comprehends different histories, but also because he presents to himself the things of which he speaks as if they were still taking place before his eyes, and, at the same time, describes a continued course of the grace of God towards him.